Administrative cooperation between the authorities in the single market

Cross-border cooperation between the authorities and the IMI system

Cooperation between the authorities of the Member States is also a requirement for the smooth functioning of the single market. Mutual trust between the national authorities is particularly important when the national legislation of the other Member States must, on certain conditions, be recognised or if the authorities have different views of how the common legislation should be interpreted.

The Internal Market Information System (IMI) is an electronic tool, which has been established to improve the exchange of information, control and cooperation between the authorities of the Member States in the application of the single market legislation.

The IMI system is a protected network application allowing the authorities of one Member State to contact the authorities of another Member State quickly and easily. The IMI system is already in use in a number of areas of the single market legislation.

Administrative liaison points under the Services Directive

The cooperation between the permit authorities in different countries has been put on a more effective basis as a result of the Services Directive of the EU. The directive makes it easier to set up an enterprise and carry out business operations in another EU country.

In Finland, the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority serves as the administrative liaison point under the Services Directive. In addition to the cooperation between the authorities, its tasks also include the development and maintenance of the point of single contact, administration of the alert mechanism and advice for service recipients.